Have recent studies addressed methodological issues raised by five decades of television violence research? A critical review

Media violence continues to be a concern to parents, policy makers and researchers. In spite of confidence expressed by some that exposure to television violence causes serious aggression and violent crime, critics hold that serious flaws in research methodology limits or nullifies conclusions drawn from widely-cited studies. In this paper, we will examine a series of classic studies for lessons learned about conducting media violence research, and assess whether recent publications adhere to those standards. We conclude that empirical reports with serious flaws continue to be published, compromising our ability to understand this phenomenon.     

The Illusion-of-Transparency and Episodic Memory: Are People Egocentric or Do People Think that Lies are Easy to Detect?

The illusion-of-transparency seems like an egocentric bias, in which people believe that their inner feelings, thoughts and perspectives are more apparent to others than they actually are. In Experiment 1, participants read out true and false episodic memories to an audience. Participants over-estimated the number of people who would think that they were the liar, and they overestimated how many would correctly identify the liar. Experiment 2 found that with lessened task demands, and by using a scale of doubt, participants distinguished lies from truthful statements (albeit with a degree of error). Over the two experiments, results indicated that people have some ability to distinguish lies from truth (in illusion-of-transparency tasks), although people often overestimate this ability, and participants sometimes think their own lies are easier to detect than is really the case.     

NIPT in a Clinical Setting: An analysis of Uptake in the First Months of Clinical Availability

The objective of our study was to describe the clinical experience in offering noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for aneuploidy to pregnant patients, highlighting the clinical utility, barriers to acceptance and limitations of this novel test. Data were collected from 961 patients offered NIPT from 3/1/12 to 9/30/12. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed. Twenty-eight percent of patients elected NIPT and 72 % declined. Women continue to elect less sensitive and less specific screening through biochemical markers and nuchal translucency. Women considering all options at average risk for aneuploidy were less likely to accept NIPT testing than women who had a risk adjustment from an ultrasound marker or routine screening test. In our multi-ethnic population, Filipina women were significantly less likely to elect NIPT compared to other ethnicities. Five percent of NIPT ordered failed analysis. Several chromosome abnormalities were detected through CVS or amniocentesis that would not have been detected by NIPT. Even though NIPT offers a non-invasive, highly sensitive and specific analysis for aneuploidy, the majority of women in our study declined this option. NIPT should be offered in the context of genetic counseling so that women understand the limitations of the testing and make an educated decision about the testing option best suited to their situation.     

Emotion Recognition and Traumatic Brain Injury: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Neuropsychology Review - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can lead to impairments in emotion recognition that can present considerable challenges to social communication and the maintenance of...     

Attachment styles and clinical correlates in people at ultra high risk for psychosis

Evidence suggests that attachment styles may influence subclinical psychosis phenotypes (schizotypy) and affective disorders and may play a part in the association between psychosis and childhood adversity. However, the role of attachment in the initial stages of psychosis remains poorly understood. Our main aim was to describe and compare attachment styles in 60 individuals at ultra high risk for psychosis (UHR) and a matched sample of 60 healthy volunteers (HV). The HV had lower anxious and avoidant attachment scores than the UHR individuals (p < .001). Sixty-nine percentage of the UHR group had more than one DSM-IV diagnosis, mainly affective and anxiety disorders. The UHR group experienced more trauma (p < .001) and more mood and anxiety symptoms (p < .001). Interestingly, in our UHR group, only schizotypy paranoia was correlated with insecure attachment. In the HV group, depression, anxiety, schizotypy paranoia, and social anxiety were correlated with insecure attachment. This difference and some discrepancies with previous studies involving UHR suggest that individuals at UHR may compose a heterogeneous group; some experience significant mood and/or anxiety symptoms that may not be explained by specific attachment styles. Nonetheless, measuring attachment in UHR individuals could help maximize therapeutic relationships to enhance recovery.     

Three faces of context and their implications for career: A study of public sector careers cut short

This paper examines the impact of context on careers. It is based on a study of senior managers in an English local authority. It offers two important contributions: first, an empirical contribution examining how context matters to individuals in their career-making in the setting of the UK public sector. Our findings point to three aspects or faces of context: proximal events, ideology and enduring structural features. The first, context as ideology, attends to meaning-making that is collective in nature, and that incorporates concepts of power, domination, subordination and resistance. Our second refers to the enduring structural features. These are on-going trends and developments, predictable and traceable over the medium to long-term which offer rules and resources, thus structuring opportunity and constraint. Finally, the third face, context as proximal events, refers to (often unexpected) contingencies that arise at particular moments. Although bounded both spatially and temporally, they can significantly impact on career decision making. The second contribution of the paper builds upon this empirical base to develop theoretical and conceptual understanding of the link between career and context, illustrating the interconnectedness of the various faces of context and the dynamic ways in which these influence career-making over time.     

Reduced extinction of hippocampal-dependent memories in CPEB knockout mice

CPEB is a sequence-specific RNA binding protein that regulates translation at synapses. In neurons of CPEB knockout mice, synaptic efficacy is reduced. Here, we have performed a battery of behavioral tests and find that relative to wild-type animals, CPEB knockout mice, although similar on many baseline behaviors, have reduced extinction of memories on two hippocampal-dependent tasks. A corresponding microarray analysis reveals that about 0.14% of hippocampal genes have an altered expression in the CPEB knockout mouse. These data suggest that CPEB-dependent local protein synthesis may be an important cellular mechanism underlying extinction of hippocampal-dependent memories.